HEARING - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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Mr. SHAPLAND. I think we are in absolute agreement.
Senator HEINZ. Yes, but how do we do a better job?
Mr. SHAPLAND. OK. I guess if I were in your position, I would
look for somebody in advertising to help me, because I am not an
expert in that, and you probably are not either. I do not know if
you use full-page ads, if you use newspapers, broadcasting-I do
not know what you do. That is up to people who are experts in educating
people and advertising and so on. I think we need to look for
help in that area; I agree with you.
Senator HEINZ. Just call up Doyle-Dane-Bernbach and buy some
advertising.
Mr. SHAPLAND. Sure.
Senator HEINZ. Thank you.
Chairman MELCHER. Senator Pressler?
Senator PRESSLER. Let me first of all welcome you here to this
committee. I know you are associated with Mutual of Omaha,
which is headed by Mr. V.J. Skutt, who is formerly from South
Dakota, and I think he is one of the most honest and finest menwe
are very proud of him. He comes back to South Dakota about
once a year to give a speech.
The point I am making through that is that we seem to have a
problem here, but I do not think it is necessarily the fault of the
private insurance companies. If there is misinformation, we should
root it out. But there is nothing wrong with being in business. You
have got to make a profit. I think it is easy to "beat up" on the
health insurance companies, but I do not know if that does much
good, especially since you are here with crutches, so we should not
beat up on you.
Mr. SHAPLAND. Go ahead and beat on me.
Senator PRESSLER. The thing we are trying to find here is the
truth and who is responsible. In many areas, as you have pointed
out, the private health insurance companies appear to be doing
what they say they are doing, and they are not misleading anybody.
But there are still people-and we have heard cases this morning
of people who are falling through the cracks somehow. I am just
embarking on a visit to all 66 counties in my State, which will take
a while to get done if I want to keep my voting record up here in
the <strong>Senate</strong>. I am sure that in many of those counties, I will meet
people who will say that they cannot buy private health insurance
for one reason or another, and they are left out in the cold. So we
do have these catastrophic cases.
I want to just address a general question to you about the group
you represent-and I know that you are an easy target for criticism.
But does the profitability of the health insurance-companies
that you represent exceed the profitability of other insurance companies?
Could you explain a bit of that?
Mr. SHAPLAND. Sure. I do not know what the figure is, so I will
just make a rough approximation, and I do not know that it is too
critical. But I would say maybe half or a lot more of insurance is
sold by nonprofit insurance companies.
Senator PRESSLER. By nonprofit companies?
Mr. SHAPLAND. Nonprofit insurance companies, like Mutual of
Omaha. They are designated "mutual" companies.